Posted October 02, 2021 by Ebbasuke
#postmortem #visual novel #game jam #spooktober
Spooktober VN Jam is finally over, and I made it! I finished a visual novel before the deadline, though it’s missing some CG images and sounds. I’m planning on adding stuff to it later.
I wanted to make a small, spooky visual novel for Spooktober, but I had trouble figuring out an idea. I ended up making a prequel to my O2A2 Again jam entry Vampire†Hunter.
I planned on writing the script during the first week since it’s the hardest part of the development for me. I didn’t plan much for the sprites and other art assets besides the backgrounds, which was a mistake.
I wanted to test my arms, which have been suffering from nerve pain during summer to see if they can handle a more relaxed game jam. Partly because of that I decided to spend more free time doing other things than the jam (which didn’t really work out the way I intended to).
I took great care to prepare for the writing task. During O2A2 Again, I had prepped the story outline beforehand and it had been a great start. I did so this time too, and it was great.
I also looked for free photos from Pixabay and Pexels, because I wanted to save my arms while making the background assets.
I didn’t prepare for any music or sound effects this time, which was a mistake.
I got off to a great start because I was hyped up about the jam and I had finished the outline beforehand. Writing the script took me a little over a week. I decided to make the story linear first, and save writing the second branch for last if I had time. It was a good call.
After the scriptwriting, I felt a little too accomplished, and the project pace got lax. I did make all the backgrounds in about a week or so with the help of LunaPic, which is an online photo editing and filter app.
Photo without editing:
The same photo with LunaPic Sadness filter:
The finished background image after editing:
I love that site, but I have to find another way to use filters (or make my own?) because I can’t rely on it being available forever. For a game jam like this, it was great.
After the second week, the development hit a wall. I had IRL stuff to take care of and I didn’t have a grasp of the scope because I hadn’t planned the sprites and other art assets properly. I implemented the story and the backgrounds into Ren’Py, which helped a lot with understanding what was still needed.
My spouse went on a trip for the last week of September, so I decided to use the time to crunch the game together. It didn’t miraculously make the scope smaller, though I did use the scope knife and culled some CGs with clever use of sprite animation.
The pace had to slow down for a while because of arm pain, but I made it to the finish line. I published The Legend of Astera Stone in time, though missing a few CGs and all the sounds. I plan on adding the missing stuff later.
I hope I'll be wiser next time and read this postmortem before development. :D